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If you ask communities on the frontline of the fracking industry in the US what their greatest concern is about the controversial technology, often the reply is the threat to their drinking water.

The Obama administration’s inconsistent approach to climate change was laid bare again last night after the US Interior Department reconfirmed Shell’s controversial lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska.

The oil industry often prides itself in pushing the boundaries of technology. The whole fracking revolution has been driven by the industry pioneering new techniques to exploit oil and gas that was previously out of reach.

Twenty years ago the oil giant Shell was embroiled in two separate controversies, which still haunt the company to this day.

It could all be over before it even began. The boom could turn to bust before a well is even drilled. The British fracking industry now faces growing resistance from numerous influential voices.

It is hard to believe but it is nearly five years since BP’s reckless behaviour caused arguably America’s worst environmental disaster.

Not content with polluting our air and water and causing immeasurable harm to both the environment and health, the fracking industry has now come up with a novel idea: the consumer should pay for the polluting process as well.

A new peer-reviewed scientific paper, published today in Reviews on Environmental Health, adds to the growing evidence of harm from fracking, especially to women and young children. But men also should be worried too.

For years the oil industry has been lobbying tirelessly to overturn the US crude export ban as domestic production increases on the back of the fracking revolution.

For years politicians in Britain have been looking with increasing envy at the burgeoning shale boom in the US, believing that it could be replicated in the UK.